Simple Wi-Fi: Great for Consumers

Today Amazon announced their "Wi-Fi Simple Setup" -- Amazon's approach to making their products easier to set up and connect to Alexa. This new capability is right in line with Amazon's impressive history of eliminating friction for their products -- from their "one click ordering" patent to their checkout-free, brick-and-mortar retail stores. Wi-Fi Simple Setup is a natural extension to Amazon's products that's right in line with Amazon's values, and it addresses a key pain point for customers: Wi-Fi setup.

Here at Cirrent, we're glad to see Amazon recognizing the importance of this issue. Cirrent's mission is to make Wi-Fi products easier, more secure, and more reliable, and Wi-Fi setup is a critical component of that. More and more product companies are recognizing this too -- more than 40% of the negative reviews of connected products are related to setup and connectivity, and those negative reviews directly impact customer satisfaction, support and returns costs, and ultimately impact product sales.

As more companies recognize the importance of Wi-Fi setup, we've been able to build a large ecosystem of like-minded companies. Large internet service providers like Comcast have lined up with Cirrent and enabled ZipKey on their networks, and through these partnerships Cirrent's ZipKey is today deployed across 127 million homes -- nearly 40% of homes in the US and Europe.

For product companies, solving Wi-Fi setup is critical, but all of the recent announcements create a conundrum: how can they deal with the increasing complexity of Wi-Fi onboarding? iOS and Android come with their own unique challenges; the Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced Wi-Fi Easy Connect; there is Apple HomeKit and now, Amazon “Wi-Fi Simple Setup”.

At Cirrent, we’ve focused on one thing: providing the best possible user experience no matter what the user’s environment. Whether they own an Amazon Alexa, Google Home, iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, eero or ISP router, their products should connect easily out-of-the-box.

Product companies can get the benefit of the large footprint of ZipKey hotspots today, and know that as new capabilities get released to the public, they’ll get to market quickly with new features that make their products the easiest to use, most secure, and most reliable.